In 1890, in a territory out West, Johnny Blood, a hot-tempered young cowboy is sentenced to hang for killing a man in a bar fight. His sister, a novice nun in a nearby mission, is persuaded to plead with a corrupt governor to spare her brother’s life. The governor promises to pardon Johnny if his sister, the Sister, will ‘do his bidding’ for the night. Adding to the humorous complications are a hard-bitten sheriff, a voluptuous saloon girl and a priest who reads Nietzsche.

Direct from its sold out run at the York Theatre, the foot-stompin’, knee-slappin’ new musical with a nod to Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. It’s funny, it’s sexy, it’s country, and it’s a New York premiere with music by award-winning composer David Friedman and book and lyrics by two-time Tony nominee Peter Kellogg.

In this day and age, writing a musical in rhyming iambic pentameter is a little gutsy. To pull it off, you’re going to need a good playwright and a darn good cast. Happily, The York Theatre Company has both of those, and as a result, their Shakespeare-inspired Western comedy Desperate Measures is a soaring success. The production has a talented playwright and lyricist in Peter Kellogg and an excellent composer in David Friedman. Of course, some credit is also due to director and choreographer Bill Castellino, whose magic touch is evident throughout the work. A crime of passion has doomed Johnny Blood (Conor Ryan) to the gallows. That is, unless Sheriff Martin Green (Peter Saide) can find a way to save the poor young cowboy. The Sheriff enlists Johnny’s estranged sister Susanna (Emma Degerstedt), who is on the verge of becoming a nun, but reluctantly agrees to beg the governor for her brother’s life. However, when Governor von Richterhenkenpflichtgetruber (Nick Wyman, and let’s applaud him for pronouncing that name seamlessly every time) lays eyes on the lovely Susanna, he conceives a dastardly plot: if Susanna will sleep with him for one night, he will spare her brother’s life. The …Read more